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My Top 5 Least Favourite Films

As part of our 1000 View Week celebratory series in February, I listed my top 5 favourite films (click here to see the list). For 2000 View Week however, I am spinning this on its head and listing my top 5 least favourite films. Note that these films aren’t necessarily the worst I have ever seen, but some of these I disliked personally more than those films that I’ve seen which are just plain terrible. Also note that I have a relatively modest watchlist of 267, so some of the notoriously terrible films such as Sharknado and The Room will not appear on this list. Anyway, let’s get on with the countdown:

#5 – Alien: Resurrection (1997)

After the disaster of David Fincher’s Alien3 in 1992, it’s hard to believe that the once-acclaimed series could sink much lower. The first two entries, Alien and Aliens, are two of my all-time favourite films, particularly the former, and although this series’ reputation wasn’t completely obliterated by the last two entires, it wasn’t far off. I hate Alien: Resurrection more than Alien3 because it deviates so far from the franchise’s roots that it could easily have a different title. Although it was pretty bad, Alien3 at least tried to retain the horror roots of the franchise, whereas Resurrection is a mish-mash of bad writing, hammy acting and a terrible plot that is truly an embarrassment to the franchise.

#4 – RoboCop 3 (1993)

Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop is one of my all-time favourite films, combining biting social commentary of a consumerist society with sharp, witty writing, superb action and a truly legendary lead character. RoboCop 3 is none of these things, no matter how hard it tries. A tell-tale sign that your film isn’t going well is when the lead actor refuses to be a part of it and the only remaining character from the original two demands that their character is killed. It’s gratuitously campy and lacks any of the substance of the 1987 original, ditching the brilliant visual effects for hamfisted CGI and a ridiculous, boring and bloated plot. Definitely not the thrilling trilogy-closer it could’ve been.

#3 – Judge Dredd (1995)

Set your mind back 20 years to 1995, a time where Sylvester Stallone was a highly in-demand actor and comic-book films hadn’t had their renaissance. Like plenty of comic-book films at the time, Judge Dredd didn’t even try to stay loyal to the character, showing Joseph Dredd as a fool. He removes his helmet to reveal Sly’s face, something that was never done in the character’s rich comic history, and Stallone himself doesn’t ever come close to trying, preferring to deliver a shoddy performance in exchange for a quick pay-check. This film has poor writing, terrible action and generally discredits the 2000AD comic books. We’re lucky Karl Urban’s Dredd was made, to do justice to such a brilliant, rich character.

#2 – Disaster Movie (2008)

Ranked #10 on IMDb’s Bottom 100 list, Disaster Movie is a typical Jason Freidberg/Aaron Seltzer film in that it is terribly written, badly directed and awfully acted. Once I thought this film fell into the so-bad-it’s-good bracket, but now I’ve realised that it wasn’t even trying to fit into that category: it was worse even than that. It genuinely has no redeeming factors due to its start-stop plot that is incredibly incoherent, awful humour that relies purely on references, and terrible actors whom are clearly only here for a quick buck. It’s a shame that films like this still get made, since it discredits cinema as not only a form of art, but also a form of entertainment.

#1 – Batman and Robin (1997)

If you read my review of Batman and Robin (read it here), you’ll know that I am genuinely repulsed by this film. It makes Batman, not only my favourite character of all-time, but a legendary hero with a rich history not only in the comics but cinematically, look stupid, focusing on his crotch and butt more than his character. It isn’t anything like the comics, or even the campy 1960’s TV series, because at least that was charming. This definitely isn’t – its sole purpose is so obviously to sell merchandise and print out money for Warner Bros.. It disgusts me that this film was allowed to be made since it is such a disgrace to the Batman character, but in a way, we are lucky that this film was made, because without it we may not have gotten Christopher Nolan’s fantastic films, or Ben Affleck’s upcoming portrayal of the Caped Crusader, but nonetheless it is a god-awful film that deserves no credit.